Acts of the Apostles left us vivid record of Gospel's spread

The early Christians experienced the Easter event as confusing, bewildering, too-good-to-be true, wondrous, joyful, and, most of all, totally transformative.

It was a wild and crazy time.

The Gospels relate how the early disciples mistook the Risen Lord for a gardener, a ghost, a stranger on the way to Emmaus. Often enough, the disciples recognized him in movingly simple gestures. For instance, Mary Magdalene recognized him when he called her by name. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus recognized him in the breaking of the bread. And John recognized his voice when he called out, as an apparent stranger, from the shore and then invited them to grill some fish over a fire. "It is the Lord," John proclaimed.

I suspect most Christians have similar experiences. They experience bewilderment and confusion far more often than they experience the joy of the Risen Lord. Nothing is pure and simple.

Gradually over time, even over several years, the reality of the transformative power of the Resurrection sinks in.

The early disciples encounter the divine in simple acts of care and compassion. They recognize Christ when they feed the hungry, when they bind up the wounds of the captive (see Matthew 25:34-40). In our day, the captive might be those addicted to drugs or those caught in destructive webs of deceit. Like them, we too ponder the Scriptures, and we recognize the Lord in the breaking of the bread.

The Acts of the Apostles, which we are reading in the Church throughout this Easter season of the 50 days until Pentecost, give us a vivid record of the misunderstandings, the contention, and disagreements, on the one hand, as well as the surprising spread of the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire.

The central, and probably most important, event, which doesn't seem all that dramatic to us now, was the First Council of Jerusalem in A.D. 49 (Acts: 15: 6-29).

All through the first half of the first century, the church was still very Jewish. But, as the number of Gentile convents grew, a dispute arose between the Gentiles and the Jews. The Gentile converts did not see the relevance of circumcision and of some of the dietary laws to their practice of the faith.

Delegates from Antioch went to Jerusalem to present their case, and the elders gathered to make a decision. Peter made the argument that they should not put God to the test by placing an unbearable yoke on these new converts (Acts of the Apostles, 15:8-11).

One can imagine that a decision was not made easily. A certain boldness in the Spirit was needed. Eventually, James, the head of the church in Jerusalem, announced the result:

"It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and ours too, not to lay on you [the Gentile converts] any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, to refrain from consuming blood, to avoid meat from strangled animals, and reject all illicit sexual union".

The Gentile converts accepted this compromise with great joy (Acts of the Apostles, 15:22-29).

We can skim over all this now with a certain naiveté, thinking, "Well, of course, that makes sense." But for the early Christians it was a monumental change. This Council of Jerusalem gives us a bold model for making crucial decisions in the Church today, such as who should be ordained, who is qualified to lead a faith community.

And these early disciples were guided by two principles: One: not to lay an undue burden on the people, and two: to be guided by the Holy Spirit with a bold confidence to make all the decisions necessary for the good of the community.

This same boldness in the Spirit could result once again in our own day in a new transformative Pentecost — even more faithful to the revelation of the Risen Lord.

Fr. Patrick Howell SJ is the rector (religious superior) of the Jesuit Community at Seattle University and professor of pastoral theology. Readers may send feedback to faithcolumns@seattletimes.com.